This simple concept is the inspiration behind the Earth Day Omaha activities: turning a t-shirt in to a tank top, tote bag, scarf, headband, or bracelet. No sewing, no gluing! You only need a t-shirt, a pair of scissors, and access to the Goodwill blog, where all this week, we’ll be sharing the instructions on how to make these great t-shirt projects.

Not only do you get to reuse an old t-shirt and repurpose it in to a fashionable, fun, and useful item, you are able divert the amount of trash going to a landfill and reduce the new materials you are consuming.

Come back tomorrow when we walk you through the steps to create a tank top, and come back each day until Friday to learn how to make scarves, headbands and tote bags!

The poor souls at the Retail Operations Center cleaned up in Monday's downpour. That's commitment!

Leave it to nature to complicate Earth Day!

The original plan was to hold an agency-wide Earth Day cleanup on Monday, but really awful weather disrupted that. Yet the cleanup could not be stopped! Some brave souls continued as planned on Monday, refusing to let the rain deter them. Others were able to proceed Monday because they were cleaning inside, and therefore weather didn’t really matter.

The E-Commerce crew cleaned their area inside the ROC. Rain could not stop them either! It would have been a fairly poor excuse.

But when it came to the event known as “Jeans for Green Day,” in which Goodwill employees would clean up trash around the buildings (among other green activities), Friday was where the action was.

Loss Prevention Director Kent Caniglia led a crew around the Benson Park Plaza headquarters, where they found — among other things — a bag of discarded lunchmeat and a dead fox. Over at Ames Plaza, home to the Heartland Workforce Solutions adult and youth career programs, their prize was a toilet. Those, along with numerous less-interesting items, were collected and properly disposed of.

Volunteers at Benson Park Plaza cleaned up litter from the ravine around the building.

But importantly, people took a little time out of their day to take care of their corner of the world — a nice little reminder of just how easy it is to be good stewards of the space around us. Big thanks to everyone who helped!

Check out the latest in green news at Goodwill, including a feature on our Earth Day Omaha booth, updates from the Green Court, additional recycling options, focus group results and upcoming green-themed events…

Learn about our new quarterly Lifesaver and Above & Beyond Champion awards and meet the first winners…

Goodwill Industries, the Omaha West Rotary and WOWT are partnering to sponsor the “Drive for Drives” computer recycling event on April 27th at 84th & Center in the former Cinema Center Theater parking lot.

All computer equipment, working or not, will be accepted free of charge from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Individuals are responsible for removing all personal data prior to donation.

Goodwill’s highly trained staff will safely disassemble the CPUs and sort the various components for responsible recycling. Goodwill Omaha is a partner in the national Dell Reconnect program. Some refurbished computers will be sold in Goodwill’s GoodBytes Computer Store at 72nd & F with proceeds from sales going to support the agency’s mission of helping people find jobs.

Household items and gently used clothing will also be accepted during the drive.

Despite some chilly temperatures, Earth Day Omaha was a huge success this year! Held on Saturday, April 20th at Elmwood Park in Omaha, Earth Day Omaha brought together dozens of vendors in order to educate the public about opportunities to “go green” every day.

Goodwill’s recycling programs were highlighted at the event. Bales of shirts, cardboard, and plastic wrap helped to illustrate to the hundreds of event attendees how Goodwill attempts to recycle, reuse or repurpose nearly everything that comes into our stores.

We also showed event-goers that Goodwill items can be used at more than face-value. Hundreds of t-shirts, which were graciously donated from our retail stores, were given new life through different stylish projects. Projects included deconstructing the shirts to make tank tops, creatively tying the tees to make shopping bags, cutting up the fabric and braiding headbands and looping material to make fashionable (and warm) scarves. Hundreds of crafts were made in the five hours we were there.

I know what you are probably thinking: “These items are so cute, I want to make them all!” No worries, we in the Marketing and Development department are in the process of making easy-to-follow instructions to put here on the GoodTimes blog so you can go to any store, pick out some fun t-shirts and start making your crafts!

Earth Day may be only one day a year, but together we can be sustainable-and fashionable-all while helping the mission.

Angie Montgomery (right) helps size a headband made from t-shirts. The headband's creator chose colors specifically for Earth Day -- green for plants, brown for the earth and red for flowers.

Earth Day Omaha will be held this Saturday (April 20th) from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Elmwood Park in Omaha. The event will have food, drinks and activities. We will have fun (and easy) craft projects made from upcycled Goodwill t-shirts.

Goodwill employees have been busy this week planning for Earth Day Omaha, which has included testing the craft instructions! We made some wonderful tank tops, bracelets, bags, scarves, and headbands-all from old tshirts. See for yourself:

Come join us at the Goodwill booth on Saturday, make a fashionable item for yourself or a loved one, and learn a little more about Goodwill’s recycling efforts.

Every week, Goodwill Omaha presents free READY workshops designed to enhance your job readiness skills. The workshops are free and open to the public, and they are held from 1:00pm – 3:00pm at Heartland Workforce Solutions, 5752 Ames Avenue (in Ames Plaza, between 56th and 60th) in Omaha. To sign up, call 402-231-1978.

Here’s what we have coming up this week:

Monday, April 15: Career Development
Rare is the person who lands in their career destination in their first job. For most of us, your career is a path of growth, development and change as you gain skills and perspective on your path to a goal. Learn how to identify that goal and map your professional path to getting there.

Tuesday, April 16: Decision Making
Life is a serious of choices, some more obvious than others, but most with the potential to make a significant impact on our lives. Having choices can be liberating and empowering, but sometimes having too many choices can be paralyzing. Knowing what decisions to make comes from a combination of research, instinct and self-confidence.

Thursday, April 18: Digital Literacy
“E-mail us your resume.” “Apply online.” These days, it seems like almost everything in the job-application realm is done online. If you haven’t had an opportunity to get too familiarized with computers and the internet, it can be hard enough before you factor in how quickly things are changing! In this session, you will get up to speed on current trends in technology and how to navigate the digital world to better prepare you for your job search.

There’s not a whole lot to explain that isn’t already included in the image up above, but just to be thorough — we’re holding a Reserve Instagram contest throughout the month of April, and here’s how you enter:

1. Take a photo of something you’ve seen or purchased at Reserve: Goodwill in the Market. Purchase is not necessary to win.
2. Post it on your Instagram feed, tagging us with @goodwillomaha and with hashtag #reservecontest.

That’s it! We’ll take all the entries at the end of the month and draw a winner, who will receive a $50 Goodwill gift card.

Every week, Goodwill Omaha presents free READY workshops designed to enhance your job readiness skills. The workshops are free and open to the public, and they are held from 1:00pm – 3:00pm at Heartland Workforce Solutions, 5752 Ames Avenue (in Ames Plaza, between 56th and 60th) in Omaha. To sign up, call 402-231-1978.

Here’s what we have coming up this week:

Monday April 8, 2013 – Customer Service
No matter what your job, customer service is going to come in to play at some point. Good customer service skills enhance the relationships between you and your customers, you and your coworkers and you and your superiors. In some way, we’re all serving somebody else at our jobs. When you can maximize this most important of soft skills, you can make the workplace more satisfying for everyone!

Tuesday April 9, 2013 – Conflict Resolution
We all encounter conflict at some point — what matters is how we respond to it. Are you someone who blows up and unleashes, or are you someone who can step back, examine the situation, and find a productive solution? Good conflict resolution skills determine whether an incident will be harmful or beneficial to your workplace, and it’s never too late to prepare yourself for when disagreement inevitably arises.

Thursday April 11, 2013 – Team Building
Very few people work in a vacuum. Most of us need to work as part of a team, and building a team that’s suited and prepared for the tasks ahead is a big part of accomplishing your goals! Learn how to take most advantage of every team member’s skills while also developing the group and making sure everyone is encouraged and empowered so that you can build the team you need to get the job done.